Vodafone Sure Signal femto flaws could enable widespread phone hacking

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2094076/vodafone-signal-femto-flaws-enable-widespread-phone-hacking

By Phil Muncaster
V3.co.uk
14 July 2011

Self-styled security research collective The Hacker's Choice has 
revealed flaws in Vodafone's Sure Signal femtocell product which it 
claims could allow hackers to listen to other Vodafone UK users' calls, 
access their voicemails and even make calls via the victim's phone.

The revelations come as media mogul Rupert Murdoch's empire comes under 
increasing pressure as cases of alleged widespread voicemail hacking by 
News International journalists continue to come to light.

The Hacker's Choice explained in a blog post and more fully in a wiki 
entry that it had managed to reverse-engineer the equipment, which acts 
as a home router to boost a mobile phone's 3G signal when indoors, and 
turn it into a "full blown 3G/UMTC/WCDMA interception device".

The group said that it found two main flaws. The first allows anyone, 
not just registered customers, to use the femtocell device. The second 
turns it into an International Mobile Subscriber Identity grabber for 
any phone within 50 metres.

[...]


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